


Law of Inertia

by hyakinthos



Category: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: Family, Gen, Mention of underage drinking, Pre-Canon, Sort of anyway, finish the game first, mention of alcoholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-10 09:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3285812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyakinthos/pseuds/hyakinthos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Family affairs in Rhizome Nine had been at a perfect standstill for the better part of the time they had spent being affairs in the first place. It might have been expected, but all the two needed to awkwardly step in next to each other and start over at point A was a little push."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Law of Inertia

Anyone who'd ever been in a physics class for more than about ten minutes could recite the law of inertia. An object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Family affairs in Rhizome Nine, or rather, the lack thereof, had been at a perfect standstill for the better part of the time they had spent being affairs in the first place. It might have been expected, but all the two needed to awkwardly step in next to each other and start over at point A was a little push.

  
The push arrived in the form of a woman who came bearing research and an inimitable resolve, and nothing could have stopped her.

  
It was the first time they had had a proper conversation since Kyle had been about seven years old. A real conversation, wherein nobody wanted anything immediate or tangible from the other, and everybody hid whatever deep-seated anger they might have had as well as they could.

  
It looked for all the world like an intervention, neither party was comfortable, and there were a lot of things in the air that both desperately hoped they would not have to be the one to bring up. It was almost uncertain whether or not the affair could be called a conversation at all, because they had spent less than half of the time they had been sitting there actually speaking.

  
Funny how that happens when there is so much to say.

  
Topics came and went sporadically for some time, but they found that anything they had to say on subjects like Akane, Luna, Lagomorph, their environment, et cetera, was either quite vague or a bit too personal for the occasion. Of course, they could have gone on, but it didn't feel quite right just yet.

  
Dr. Klim found himself itching to ask his… son how he felt about the weather, or if he'd met any nice girls lately, how school was going, anything he could have asked after politely the last time he'd really talked to someone he didn't know well. He wanted Kyle to loosen up, stop talking like he was addressing a higher-up at a job he couldn't afford to lose, but that was his fault, wasn't it? He wanted the kid to stop looking like he was afraid that a scolding was imminent for just a second, but Dr. Klim was guilty there, too.

  
Casting his good eye down, the doctor asked, "What do you do all day?"

  
Kyle chewed his bottom lip. There were things, of course, that he was sure his father wouldn't want to hear. He took a second to go over his recent routine, he woke up, he read, he drank, he played a game, he fell asleep. It wasn't even a 24-hour schedule anymore. It was a wonder he wasn't hungover right now.

  
Time passed, and Kyle was vaguely aware that he had paused for a few seconds too long for comfort.

"I mainly read, but I don't think you have enough time to read the kind of books that I like," he finally explained, the regretful look on his face almost in contradiction with the edge in his voice.

  
"That's fair," his father replied. It was a troubling thing to hear, and Dr. Klim was almost happy when awkward silence gave him a moment to think. Kyle's unusually confrontational tone complicated things. Dr. Klim wasn't angry, not by any means, the boy had every right to be upset with him, but it just went to show.

  
This was going to be a longer and more winding road than either of them could have expected it to be. Of course, they were headed in the right direction, but what bond was inherent between parents and their children, even what excitement they felt at the promise of a second chance, wouldn't be enough. They were intelligent men, and of course they had both resigned themselves to the fact that there was always going to be something miles outside of their ken.

  
It was hard to learn something like this through study, and it was harder to learn it though practice, especially this late. But they were headed in the right direction, and an object in motion tended to stay that way.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry to flood the fandom with my stories all of a sudden, I haven't gotten around to posting anything I've written in the past little while! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
